San Diego Evacuees Call Their Answering Machines to See if Their Houses Are Standing

SAN DIEGO — Some evacuees from the fires raging here have taken to phoning home to see if their answering machines are picking up.

Yun Ling, 38, was at Qualcomm Stadium evacuation site with her husband, two children and her husband’s parents Monday night. She lives in the hard-hit Rancho Bernardo area where 500 homes were destroyed. But she found her answering machine functioning.

"It’s a machine, not voice mail," Ling told me. "That means the plastic box is still there and there’s power. That gives us hope."

Cell service is up in most of San Diego county, though officials are asking people to text rather than call to keep the lines clear.

The fires come a little over a month after San Diego’s mayor unveiled a $180,000 Reverse 911 emergency notification system, supposedly capable of delivering recorded warnings to 240,000 numbers an hour. Overall, that system seems to be working as planned. However, some evacuees, including Ling, say they didn’t get the call.

Ling says her family got a hang-up call at 4:30 in the morning Monday. "We thought it was a prank call," the Chinese immigrant said. Neighbors came by an hour later and told them they had received the reverse 9-11 call around 4:30, telling them to evacuate.

Those who rely on VoIP or cell phones exclusively are also out of the loop, because the system doesn’t know to call them. But the city has a website where residents can register a non-landline number and associate it with their address. It’s been up and down.

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Image: A San Diego Police officer looks over a burning home in the San Diego community of Rancho Bernardo, San Diego, Calif., Monday, Oct 22. 2007. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)